Augustine was born in a small town in North Africa
in the mid-300s AD. His parents were not
poor, and when he got older and it seemed that he was very smart, they
sent him to a bigger city to go to school, and eventually they sent
him to Rome to study with teachers there. At first Augustine was interested
in Manichaeanism. While he was studying
in Italy as a young man, he met Ambrose, the
bishop of Milan, and was influenced by him (and by the general enthusiasm
in Rome) to convert to Christianity.
Soon afterwards Augustine went back to Africa to be the bishop
of Hippo, a town near his hometown. He wrote a book, the Confessions,
about why he had converted to Christianity.

Not long after Augustine returned home, he got the
terrible news that the city of Rome had been attacked and sacked by
the Visigoths
(in 410 AD). Augustine was shocked and
sad. Then he heard that people
were saying that Rome had been destroyed because the Romans had converted
to Christianity and forgotten the old gods. People were saying that
they should go back to praying to Jupiter
and Mars, and then Rome would be safe.

Augustine was very upset by this. No, it could not
be so! He knew that the Christian god was the one true god, and Jupiter
and Mars were only demons. But then why had Rome been destroyed, just
as everyone was finally converting to Christianity?
Augustine devoted most of the rest of his life to writing a book,
the City of God, that would answer this question. His answer (in a
very short version) was that God wanted the things of this earth to
be destroyed so that the new world could come. The City of Man (Rome)
was destroyed to make things ready for the City of God (Heaven) which
was going to come very soon. Meanwhile, everybody should convert to
Christianity quickly, or else when the world ended they would go to
hell.

Augustine's view helped everyone to deal with the fact that the Roman Empire
was collapsing around
them, and became very popular.

Augustine died in 430 AD,
with the Vandals
besieging Hippo, the city he lived in. But he died happy, knowing
that when the Vandals took Hippo, it was only another sign that the
Kingdom of God was coming soon.

Bibliography and further reading about Augustine:

Karen Eva Carr, PhD.Assoc. Professor Emerita, History
Portland State University

Read more

Professor Carr holds a B.A. with high honors from Cornell University in classics and archaeology, and her M.A. and PhD. from the University of Michigan in Classical Art and Archaeology. She has excavated in Scotland, Cyprus, Greece, Israel, and Tunisia, and she has been teaching history to university students for a very long time.

Quatr.us (formerly "History for Kids") is entirely supported by your generous donations and by our sponsors. Most donors give about $10. Can you give $10 today to keep this site running? Or give $50 to sponsor a page?